MOVING IMAGE ARTIST

Kaamos 2015

Kaamos, the sister film to Lightness is also shot in 16mm (with digital intervention). It was shot in two locations over the winter of 2014-15 in the very south and very north of Finland.

The first part was filmed whilst Goodwin was artist in residence on the 17th century fortress island of Suomenlinna near Helsinki. The second part was filmed when the artist travelled to Lapland, to dwell in darkness and experience Kaamos (the polar night), where the sun does not rise for two months. As if in respite for the lack of sun, the Aurora Borealis appeared on the first night.

The film’s narrative, spoken in Finnish, explores the impact on the artist of living with minimal daylight and the changing nature of the northern hemisphere winter, due to global warming. As a direct result of the season, Kaamos is a much more insular film than Lightness, although using similar time-lapse filming techniques and with overlapping themes. Kaamos uses a mixture of horror film references along with humour. The minimalist soundtrack was made in collaboration with Lappi sound artist Janne Simila, who accompanied Goodwin for part of the filming of Kaamos.

Kaamos was created whilst in residence at HIAP, Suomenlinna Island, Finland and was generously funded by by the Australian Council for the Arts and British Council’s International Development Fund.